December: pure culture seeker
Published on
Story by
karsten marhold & natalia sosi
Translation by:
Nabeelah ShabbirBerlin sparks and pixels, free Splash electro in Paris, European student cinema festival in Manchester and eat yourself to death in Lodz
From Spark to Pixel, Berlin
At the Martin-Gropius-Bau venue, Berliners can familiarise themselves with digitial and multimedia art. The ‘From Spark to Pixel’ exhibition promises the visitor ‘spectacular forms of artistic expression’ and a whole new way of experiencing art. The four central themes of the exhibition – fire and electricity, light and pixel – are displayed in installations by international artists, shown for the first time in Germany, including some expressly-made for this event. Until 14 January 2008
14. Exposures UK Student Filmfestival, Manchester
North Wales School of Art & Design: Blue Collars & Buttercups - Categoría Drama - Janis Pugh
The main short film students festival in the UK takes place up north in Manchester – and for the very first time this year with international collaboration. In 2006, more than 500 films were screened at the ‘Exposures’ festival in a record they hope to beat from 3 – 6 December 2007. Highlight for all babelians: on Wednesday 5 December films from all continents will be shown which deal with the dark side of everyday life. Drama and animation competitions take place on the side, the opportunity to help out with prizes for the Orange British Academy Film Awards
Small Birds Singing - animation category - Linda McCarthy
Splash Festival, Paris
(Photo: ©splash 2007)
Two-day electronic music festival from 7 - 8 December, two parties by well-known (and not-so-well-known) artists from Paris, Berlin, Brussels and Geneva. Look out for names such as VJ (visual jockey) Jeremy and VJ Albin, Red Robin, Atila the Hun or Cyrille l’Architecte, and their cocktail of a musical offering. DJ sets, performances, live acts and a VJ battle are on the list at the Opa venue in Bastille. The artists say the most important thing in this festival is to have fun, enjoy playing and listening – so entry is free
Check out more culture in Paris in our babelblog
IX Festival del Mil.lenni, Barcelona
Emir Kusturica & the No Smoking Orchestra (Photo: © Mil.lenni Festival)The ninth edition takes place in Barcelona this year, with twenty-four supreme quality concerts held until March, in which world music favourites will share the stage; from Miriam Makeba (17 January 2008) to Emir Kusturica (23 January 2008), Jane Birkin (21 February 2008) and Georges Moustaki (10 January 2008). The festival kicks off with Juliette Gréco on 13 December and Gloria Gaynor on the 27th: no chance to get the Christmas or New Year’s blues (Photo: Mil.lenni Festival)
25. Festival Tous Courts, Aix-en-Provence
It’s 
not only the Curt Ficcions team in Barcelona who are celebrating short film. From 3 – 8 December you can catch the French short film festival. In the ‘Festival Tous Courts’ in Aix-en-Provence in the south, its not only students but professional directors who show their latest masterpieces. Huge international competition means films from Europe, north and south America as well as Asia are taking part. You can also catch a glimpse of the ‘Aixperimentals’ onscreen. A record number of 1, 570 films will be beamed out over five days. A DVD is also scheduled for release to mark the 25th anniversary of cinema culture in the south of France.
(Photo: ©Festival Tous Courts)
Cineasia Filmfestival Cologne
4:30 (Photo: ©Zhao Wei Films 2006)
Programm Singapur: Szene aus Royston Tans
Asian film has been no secret in cinema for a long time now. Japan and China dominate the industry with the most famous offerings, but the Cineasia Filmfestival in Cologne, western Germany, provides a bigger range from south-east Asia this year. Ten films from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam form part of the programme from 7 – 9 December. After this year’s Burma crisis, the festival is a refreshing opportunity to take a trip into the culture of regions on the other side of the world.
Photo: © DELPHIS FILMS INC
Kuchnie zmysów: cooking for the eyes, ód
You’ve got time until 31 December to see – and savour - the Polish city of ód through an excellent exhibition which puts painting, design and film together, Cuisine and culture have always gone hand in hand, creating culinary traditions which are still around today. Cooking is also a field which breaks with stereotype and questions habits. The exhibition addresses sense of taste as well as a taste for fashion, art and aesthetics: silver spoons from the nineteenth century meet modern designs from the Alessi dream-factory, and films like Marco Ferreri’s The Grand Bouffe (1973) , a French–Italian film in which four friends eat themselves to death
(Photo: monster/ Flickr)
Story by
Translated from Kultur pur im Dezember